1
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Best commercial papayas out there?
« on: August 25, 2022, 11:27:32 AM »Unless you learn to feminize the seeds you will waste half of the acreage growing male trees. Wasting half of the planting can't be commercialized. That is why no commercial farmer would plant open pollinated papaya seeds.This one has been the best for me, but the Red Maradol has also been good. If you are growing commercial be absolutely sure to plant the professional level hybrid seeds. I believe they are specially grown so that the seeds are "Feminized". The advantage of that comes because when you plant them you never get useless male plants, plus some hybrid vigor and known fruit characteristics of size, flavor, and flesh color. As I understand it, the growers of these seeds force a female plant to make pollen which fertilizes a female flower and results in seeds produces no males. By doing this, you can reliably produce seedlings which will all make fruit when transplanted. Commercially you need to be sure there is no chance of standing water around the papaya, full sun and high fertility. Try to avoid leaning trees they bear heavy loads and can easily be lodged over or break off in wind. Pick fruit at first color stripe for shipping.
This shows a fine example of what can be achieved:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6ooVX7icbY
The main problem of growing fruits on a commercial scale in most African countries is getting quality propagation material. I have been collecting since 2003, and most need to be carried into Uganda by hand. So hybrid seeds will - at least in the beginning - be a one-time off, after which we need to propagate, select and try to stabilize a lineage, which we can use. Results will obviously not be optimal, but compared to the current situation - a big step up.
I am in an African setting remember, not in Hawaii or tropical Australia. We have to work with what's possible here. Nobody is interested in using open-pollinated seeds for the next generation, but that can be controlled too.